American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Overview

Course Overview

The University of Texas at Austin endeavors to produce sophisticated cultural analysts who are able to navigate a wide range of cultural texts and diverse sources--from Puritan sermons to reality television shows--to gain holistic insights into complicated and often disparate cultural phenomena and trends. As part of our desire to cultivate a thoughtful and engaged citizenry, we train our students to become solid writers, persuasive speakers, and expansive critical thinkers. We seek to instill in our students a broad understanding of our multicultural society's political, economic, cultural, and social complexity. We are committed to studying the influence of other nations and cultures on our society, and the impact of the United States--economically, politically, and especially culturally--on other nations and people. Although the field of American Studies is too small to be included in national surveys that rank large departments or professional schools, the Department of American Studies at Texas is widely regarded as one of the top American Studies programs or departments in the United States. About half of the department's Ph. D. recipients since 1970 have published their dissertations as books. Most have entered college and university teaching, securing tenure-track positions in recent years at such institutions as Miami University of Ohio, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, Tulane University, University of California, Davis, University of Illinois, University of Virginia, and the University of Wisconsin. Two graduates have served as college presidents, at least three as university deans, and several as department chairs. Although the majority of our graduate students pursue academic careers, significant numbers have gone into journalism, radio, TV and film work, museum curating, law, public relations, advertising, government service, secondary school teaching and administration, and creative writing. Many have won awards for their work, including a MacArthur Fellowship ('genius grant') and a Pulitzer Prize.

Program Outline

Information